It happens: you make an embarrassing error in front of other people. On the inside, you’re going: Gaaah!

Good news: it only takes a few seconds to do the Failure Bow, to reset your frazzled nervous system! It’s fun, and it supports a culture of learning and experimentation.

In this 5 minute video, I show how it’s done. It was shot during AgileIndia2019 in Bangalore.

I learned it from actor Matt Smith, a friend of the Scrum community in California. Actors use it in improv, having adopted it from trapeze artists, who need to quickly get over their embarrasment to refocus and safely get back on the rig.

To find out more, watch Matt Smith’s TEDx talk on the Failure Bow.